NEW YORK, New York - Equities took a back seat on U.S. markets on Wednesday as the dollar moved to center-stage.

The greenback zoomed higher across the board, sending all currencies reeling.

The euro was knocked down to 1.1156 by the New York close on Wednesday, while sterling fell sharply to 1.2903.

The Japanese yen weakened to 112.06 while the Swiss franc dipped to 1.0205.

The Canadian dollar tumbled to 1.3492. The Australian and New Zealand dollars were sharply lower at 0.7012 and 0.6594 respectively.

Energy stocks fell in line with oil prices, dragging all indices into the red.

At the close of trading on Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 59.34 points or 0.22% lower at 26,597.05.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 6.43 points or 0.22% to 2,927.25.

The Nasdaq Composite slid 18.81 points or 0.23% to 8,102.02.

"The overall picture confirms the economy is on a steady footing. It’s skewing to the positive side," Laura Kane, head of Americas thematic investing at UBS Global Wealth Management, was quoted as saying by the Reuters Thomson news agency on Wednesday.

"The market is taking a pause," she said. "We’ve a lot of earnings coming this week and next. There’s nothing today that would change the overall economic outlook."